The PEN Ten: An Interview with Carribean Fragoza
“Fiction is very real to me, not just because my characters and settings are often inspired by real people. . . but because they also address emotions and ideas… More
The PEN Pod: On Using Storytelling to Push Back Against Systems with Imbolo Mbue
“This story came from [my] childhood fascination: this idea of people pushing back against systems that are way more powerful than them.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Matthew Salesses
“Stories teach us how to be in the world, and from a young age, we learn that the kind of person who gets to be the protagonist is the… More
The PEN Pod: Learning from Russian Short Fiction with George Saunders
“What happens in a short story is that somebody concentrates for a long period of time to make their story as truthful and empathetic as possible, and then they… More
The PEN Pod: The Power of Writing in the Now with Rhonda Mitchell
“If you’re not vulnerable, people don’t resonate with your experience—unless they can walk in your shoes, they can’t connect. That’s the power of how we’re telling stories now.” More
The PEN Pod: On Filipino American Activism and Journalists as Storytellers with Michi Trota
“Journalists are not here to tell people what to think. . . we’re [telling] them why they should think about this, and how it fits into the larger context.” More
The PEN Pod: On the Inequities of Survival with Megan Giddings
“Our healthcare system in this country is so deeply inequitable and hostile toward the people it’s supposed to serve.“ More
The PEN Pod: Everywhere You Don’t Belong with Gabriel Bump
“What I hope that we can gain from this moment and the Black Lives Matter movement in general is that all Black lives matter.” More
The PEN Pod: How We Write Our Survival with Lisa Ko
“Even when the future does feel uncertain, like right now, it feels important to. . . imagine a future for ourselves as well as our characters.” More